A rising star in France's far-right could become the country's next prime minister. Jordan Bardella who began as an ambitious parliamentary assistant just five years ago came to the attention of Marine Le Pen the former leader of the extreme-right National Rally Party (NR) who quickly named him "the lion cub," and took him under her wing.
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Bardella was trained in political speech and positioned to run in a secure seat in the European Parliament. Le Pen also ensured he would be picked to replace her at the head of the party after she set her sights on the Elysee, hoping to be elected president of the Republic.
At 28, Bardella is considered an articulate and charismatic politician from a right-wing, working-class suburb. He may be the young leader who would attract new voters to the party but is likely to remain loyal and submissive to his benefactor.
On Sunday, he gave his first major speech ahead of the elections to the EU Parliament. "You don't leave the table when you're about to win the game," he said referring to his party's previous position, favoring France's exit from the European Union. The party is estimated to win 28.5% of voters under his leadership, while President Emmanuel Macron lags with 18%. He ended his speech highlighting the principles of his campaign: support for French products, primarily in agriculture and a war on immigration.
Bardella was born in Drancy, near Paris. The town is home to housing projects for the lower middle classes alongside elegant private residents. The grandson of an Algerian immigrant, he volunteered to teach French to immigrant children, but at the young age of 18 he joined the NR or as it was then called, the National Front, under the leadership of Marin's father Jean Marie Le Pen.
Focusing on politics, he quickly dropped out of university but not before joining the party's extreme right and often violent student chapter. Although he claimed to have left that organization early on, an investigative report in La Liberation found that he remained in touch with neo-Fascist student leader Frédéric Chatillon until 2022. Chatillon said his organization struggled against "American-Zionist imperialism."
In another investigative report on France 2, Bardella was said to have posted racist and homophobic content on a Twitter account under an assumed name between the years 2015 and 2017, accusations he denied. He also claimed in November that he did not think that Jean-Marie Le Pen, a known Holocaust denier and father of Marine, was antisemitic, but has since walked back this claim.
During the march opposing antisemitism that was held in Paris in November, an event not attended by Macron, Bardella received a warm welcome. He said Israel had on October 7 experienced its 9/11 or Bataclan - the 2015 attack by ISIS terrorists that killed 89 people.
"Israel has the right to defend itself," he said. "The shockwave is felt well in France where there are thousands of Hamas supporters."
Although Bardella's detractors are hopeful that a rivalry would form between the up and coming politicians and Marine Le Pen, such a break is unlikely. If rumors are true, the lion cub is dating Le Pen's niece and, as history has shown, familial ties make ascent in the National Rally Party easier.
Now that the extreme right is becoming a legitimate force in European politics, the name Jordan Bardella is one to remember.